Sound Expertise

Though often overlooked in mainstream histories, the voices of Black women were central to the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in August 1963. And those voices included some of the greatest musicians of the time: Odetta, Mahalia Jackson, Camilla Williams.  These women, and the political significance of the spirituals they sang, are the subject of this week's episode: a conversation with the musicologist Tammy L. Kernodle about the wide-ranging role of music, and the fractious political coalitions it represented, at the 1963 March on Washington.Tammy L. Kernodle is Professor of Musicology at Miami University in Ohio.Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation

When we think about music and deafness, it's often through the lens of Beethoven: the mythological figure who overcomes his hearing loss to compose great music. But members of the d/Deaf community often talk less about hearing loss than about deaf gain.  And we can gain a lot from understanding the wide range of methods through which d/Deaf people engage with, create, and listen to music. A conversation with musicologist Jessica A. Holmes, who researches the relationship between music and disability, including the listening expertise found in d/Deaf culture.Jessica A. Holmes is a lecturer in the Department of Musicology at the UCLA Herb Albert School of Music.Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation

Maybe you teach music history, and maybe you don't, but pedagogy is a part of your life: we have all been teachers, and we have all been students. This conversation, with musicologists Andrew Dell'Antonio and Sara Haefeli, is about how they have innovated in their classrooms, but it is also about teaching itself as a practice, as an art, and as a form of research. What does it mean to abandon traditional lecturing and traditional grading, and empower students to see themselves as creators of music history?  Sara Haefeli is associate professor of music theory, history, and composition at Ithaca College. Andrew Dell'Antonio is professor of music at the University of Texas at Austin's Butler School of Music.Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation

Music theory has long been a space in which white male scholars analyze music  by white male composers. But many music theorists are actively trying to change that, and our guest today, Professor Ellie Hisama, is foremost among them. In this conversation, we discuss her pioneering work on women modernist composers; diversifying the music theory classroom; her recent scholarship on gender discrimination in music theory, including sexist and homophobic comments made by Milton Babbitt; and a lot more. Ellie Hisama is Professor of Music, Music Theory and Historical Musicology at Columbia University.Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation

What happens, musically and spiritually, when a congregation sings gospel ? How can we analyze music that moves not just the mind, but also the body and the soul? A conversation with Braxton D. Shelley, whose scholarship fuses theology and musicology to understand how musical techniques like vamps and "tuning up" lead to transcendent religious experiences. Braxton D. Shelley is Stanley A. Marks and William H. Marks Assistant Professor at the Radcliffe Institute and Assistant Professor of Music in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences.Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation

We're back! The first episode of Season 2 features Susan McClary: one of the most influential, and controversial, musicologists of our time. We talk about her lifelong pursuit of analyzing music in its cultural context, from madrigals to Madonna; the early rejections that set her on a path towards becoming a groundbreaking feminist scholar; the intense criticism to which her scholarship has been subjected; the infamous Beethoven 9 controversy; and much more. Susan McClary is the Fynette H. Kulas Professor of Music at Case Western Reserve University.Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation

We're back next week! Season 2 of Sound Expertise begins on Tuesday, March 23.Host Will Robin will interview fellow music scholars about their research, and why it matters, in a new season of weekly episodes that'll take us into the summer. Check out our past episodes at soundexpertise.org and get ready for our season premiere next week: an interview with the amazing Susan McClary!

And we're back! Well, kind of. Season 2 of Sound Expertise launches on March 23, but for now here's a bonus preseason episode. Our intrepid producer, D. Edward Davis, interviews host Will Robin (University of Maryland) about his book "Industry: Bang on a Can and New Music in the Marketplace," out with Oxford University Press next week. We talk about the role of the festival Bang on a Can in shaping the broader world of new music, the institutions and politics of contemporary classical in the '80s and '90s, research methods, and more! And stick around until the end of the episode to hear a teaser for Season 2!As always, show notes and more over at soundexpertise.orgQuestions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation

What does it mean to create music that is valued as a national emblem, but also be part of a community that is marginalized within that nation? What is jazz manouche, and how does this musical tradition reflect the complicated status of its Romani creators in France? A conversation with Siv B. Lie, assistant professor of ethnomusicology at the University of Maryland.Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.orgQuestions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation

How can ethnomusicology help us understand the value of music in a capitalist society? When we view music as a commodity, what might it reveal about how people make meaning (and money) from art across different cultures? A conversation with Timothy Taylor, professor of ethnomusicology at UCLA's Herb Albert School of Music.Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.orgQuestions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation